News Story

Bristol hospital PFI reaches financial close

The contract between North Bristol NHS Trust and Carillion for the £430m super hospital in Southmead has been signed.

Work will now begin on preparing the site, ready for the creation of the new hospital that will open its doors to patients in 2014.

This marks the final stage in the approvals process after the PFI project recently received full backing from the Department of Health and planning permission from Bristol City Council.

Sonia Mills, chief executive, said: "This is the truly momentous final stage and guarantees the change that will occur in healthcare in the Bristol region. The new super hospital will replace some of the most outdated hospital buildings in this country with state-of-the-art, patient centred designs that will offer enormous benefits for years to come.

"The new hospital has been continually benchmarked to ensure it offers the best value for money for taxpayers not only in construction but in running costs once its open. Patient safety, privacy, comfort and flexibility have been really important to us to achieve."

The contract signing comes just a week after NHS Bristol announced it had reached the final contract signing for the development of the new South Bristol Hospital in Hengrove.